So, lately I've gotten more and more into baking and cooking. Breads, desserts (such as my trifle pictured above), entrees; you name it, I make it!It all started a couple years ago when I read a great book by Barbara Kingsolver called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. In it, Babs (in my mind, we're on a nickname basis) catalogs her experiences living for a year, eating only food produced by herself and her family or by someone they knew locally. In her narrative, she dives head first into pretty weighty stuff, and transitions easily from discussions on the evils of mass food production to the varying methods of cheese making. Basically, the book is a celebration of food and a call for our society to recover the lost art of cooking and eating well.
There were many lessons to be learnt from that book, and while I'm still working on the whole "buy local" thing, at least the idea of preparing my own food found some room in the recesses of my brain. This idea seems to have marinated enough to reach the decisions centers of my brain and is now manifesting itself in my eating habits (I’ve also started to really like hummus, but that may be unrelated).
The climax of this transformation occurred two days ago when I went and bought my first real cookbook. Now I am the proud owner of the Better Homes & Garden: New Cook Book - 14th Edition. Yep, I have arrived. I am a cook.
In celebration yesterday, I made my very first pie. I know, I don't even like pie. But the Palisade Peaches are in season right now and are really cheap and I was having a "Pushing Daisies" watching party with some friends last night and the main character in the show is a pie maker, so it all just came together. Here are some pictures of my creation:
I don't really know what it is about cooking, but it's almost a spiritual activity for me. Maybe it's the act of creation or maybe it's recognizing that there is a set order to things. Or maybe it's just the subconscious hope that there is a set recipe for all our lives, that if followed, will yield a life full of gooey goodness. I don't know what it is, but I never feel like the hours spent in the kitchen are wasted.
Well, now that I've got the good book of cookery by my side, I can be certain that while other things in my life may seem out of control, I can now always count on a good meal being only an hour and some dirty sauce pans away. Bon apetit!
7 comments:
Cooking is great. Pushing Daisies is great. I can see you as The Pie Maker...or Hummus Maker. I just completed my 245th recipe out of 563 in my Betty Crocker Cookbook, putting me at 43.5% of my goal. This is not bragging (bragging on someone elses blog would be in poor taste) this is sharing in your joy of cooking. A celebration. It looks fantastic.
Though the pie looks lovely, I think I will try some of that trifle(must be the british heritage). Delectable! I am very much impressed.
Hey, where did you get the Kitchen Aid Mixer?
I made the trifle over at a friend's house because she had a lot of the equipment that I didn't have. I don't think I've yet traveled far enough on the road of cookery to warrant owning one of those.
One of my favorite quotes is Virginia Woolf, "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."
Steve and I have really discovered the pleasure of eating well since moving to Alaska. It's one of the few pleasures we have...
Trifle always reminds me of dad. I'm impressed on the pie thing - you're wife will be so lucky.
If you have good peaches here's a yummy dessert we just had with mom: cut peaches in 1/2, brush cut part with olive oil, grill until warmed through, turn over, fill pit with brown sugar and sprinkle with cinnamon. Add vanilla icecream and enjoy! Seriously it is delicious!
yeah! cooking IS a spiritual practice! i made peach pie the other day too, and was watching 'pushing daisies'! weird. quit copying my life. and p.s. can you pretty please come to my house and make me that trifle? thanks.
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